Satellite data help scientists decode Greenland’s ice melting mystery

US: It appears that two recently launched satellites have helped researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison enormously in decoding the mystery of what is causing Greenland’s ice melting. A study done on data collected by these satellites reveal an increase cloud cover over the ice sheet is to be blamed for what is happening in Greenland.

Clouds are like nature’s blanket, and their effect on temperature is one of the first things you learn in introductory meteorology courses. In nature, clouds trap heat in the atmosphere below them, causing temperatures to stay higher. And this perhaps could be the reason why Greenland has lost one-third of its ice in recent years.